Energy and power consumption are increasingly becoming a significant business issue as energy costs and environmental impact are becoming more important in business models. Increased energy cost is reducing the profitability of telecom providers. Yet not all of the energy consumption of some telecommunication equipment is always needed. For example, a telecommunications node may provide a certain maximum bandwidth or packet processing capability, and this capability requires a given amount of memory and processing power to support the amount of maximum capacity. Yet this maximum capability and the resulting power usage is not always needed.
As the cost of electricity rises, the cost of operating telecommunication equipment becomes more important. Any additional complexity required in deciding whether to operate the equipment at full capacity may be outweighed by the energy savings realizable by reducing operating capacity. A hardware design for telecommunication equipment that consumed less power would reduce the costs of operating the equipment.